Pigeons on OSR with the cold arriving

[Pigeon addict]

With the days getting shorter and a sudden drop in temperature, has anyone seen any birds hitting the few areas of OSR that we have this year? Thinking of going on a recce this weekend but not really sure where to look. Any help would be great!

[marsh man]

57 minutes ago, Pigeon addict said:

With the days getting shorter and a sudden drop in temperature, has anyone seen any birds hitting the few areas of OSR that we have this year? Thinking of going on a recce this weekend but not really sure where to look. Any help would be great!

Going by other years I find it is still to early to find Pigeons on the rape , had a casual look around today while the weather was at it's best and the only ones I saw were on a Maize field near mine that was partly cut three weeks ago and due to the wet weather was left till today and by looking at the mess the tractors left it is still to wet .

Then while looking for some spuds I saw some Pigeons working on a freshly cut beet field , not big numbers but enough to pass a few hours away , moving on to where we have got our rape there was not a pigeon to be seen , so if you have got any Maize fields and freshly cut beet fields these could be more productive then the rape , GOOD LUCK

[the hitman]

Nothing on OSR yet locally- too much many beechmast and acorns to finish off first. I have never seen so many hawberries as this year which they will hit before moving onto the rape probably mid December locally.

Hitman 

[marmite]

NO OSR HERE

[JDog]

Pigeons have started on rape outside this village. In other parts they are on Hawthorn berries and acorns.

[mossy835]

1 hour ago, marmite said:

NO OSR HERE

 

 

+1

[yickdaz]

still on old stubbles around here but a pain to decoy 

[dead eye alan]

No great numbers on anything round me a few on a maze stubble that i will go and checkout in the next hour or so, a few on the barley stubble fields but again not worth setting up for. Only 3 fields of OSR on my permissions all got in early and are about 14 inches high with buckwheat sewed in with it, little to no pigeon activity yet, on the plus side it's all very easy to get to.

[Fuddster]

need a few frosts for them to turn to osr and the last of the hedgerow food needs to finished.

my plots of osr are standing at a foot tall already so I'm relying on some hard frosts to flatten them.

f.

[Centrepin]

We have OSR of between 6" and a foot, no pigeon. So many acorns and berry's. So much spilt grain. So many new shoots on other fields. So much muck spreading. Pigeon and Crow just sit in the trees. 

[old'un]

this area has some big numbers at the moment, but what rape there is, they are just flying over it and not showing any interest, there's still plenty of other stuff for them to feed on but hopefully they will start to show some real interest in the rape in about a month or so.

[spurs 14]

Lucky down here , the farm has couple big areas with osr but hardly any pigeons about at the moment , last few days out hardly fired a shot ! Not sure what they are feeding on or where but nothing about , think we need a cold snap 

[Pigeon addict]

On 06/11/2020 at 19:46, marsh man said:

Going by other years I find it is still to early to find Pigeons on the rape , had a casual look around today while the weather was at it's best and the only ones I saw were on a Maize field near mine that was partly cut three weeks ago and due to the wet weather was left till today and by looking at the mess the tractors left it is still to wet .

Then while looking for some spuds I saw some Pigeons working on a freshly cut beet field , not big numbers but enough to pass a few hours away , moving on to where we have got our rape there was not a pigeon to be seen , so if you have got any Maize fields and freshly cut beet fields these could be more productive then the rape , GOOD LUCK

Had a look today. Like you all said - any OSR fields were desolate of pigeon. Been a while since the maize got cut in my area with very few cobs left on the ground for the woodies to eat so that didn’t yield much shooting; forage harvesters are so damn efficient these days! Looks like they’re still on berries and nuts.

[dead eye alan]

Checked out the maze stubble, only blacks on it so didn't bother setting up, still no pigeon on the rape.

[marsh man]

On 07/11/2020 at 13:10, old'un said:

this area has some big numbers at the moment, but what rape there is, they are just flying over it and not showing any interest, there's still plenty of other stuff for them to feed on but hopefully they will start to show some real interest in the rape in about a month or so.

Why do everyone , or nearly everyone tend to rely on Rape for there Autumn / Winter pigeon shooting ?, at this time of the year with it being a very mild Autumn up to now and masses of berries on the trees and in the hedgerows you need to treat rape as the last resort rather than the first, I know it would make a slight difference in what part of the country you live in but around this way the beet harvest will carry on till well into the new  year and the pigeons would sooner eat the fresh bits of beet than the tall rape leaves , then if you have got several Oak trees on your perms you need to keep an eye on the acorn situation , yes they will start hitting the rape when most of the other food sauce have been cleared up but around this way you won't get much shooting on rape till around Christmas time . 

[Pigeon addict]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

Why do everyone , or nearly everyone tend to rely on Rape for there Autumn / Winter pigeon shooting ?, at this time of the year with it being a very mild Autumn up to now and masses of berries on the trees and in the hedgerows you need to treat rape as the last resort rather than the first, I know it would make a slight difference in what part of the country you live in but around this way the beet harvest will carry on till well into the new  year and the pigeons would sooner eat the fresh bits of beet than the tall rape leaves , then if you have got several Oak trees on your perms you need to keep an eye on the acorn situation , yes they will start hitting the rape when most of the other food sauce have been cleared up but around this way you won't get much shooting on rape till around Christmas time . 

True. No beet in my area so I can only presume the birds are in the woods and hedgerows like you said. Trouble is my whole farm consists of oaks dotted around and despite the heavy acorn crop there still aren’t the numbers of birds to shoot even a bag of 10. Most I’ve seen dropping in on the acorns is 9 or 10 birds. 

[JDog]

I toured round for two hours today and didn't see any pigeons anywhere.

[motty]

Drop in temperature? It was over 15 degrees c today. The temperature will have no bearing on whether pigeons will feed on rape.

[old'un]

Well the big flocks of pigeons I mentioned in the thread started by JDog ‘Where are all the posts?’ have gone!

Went out this morning at 6:30am and got in position by 6:50am, after three hours I never had a shot, I know this area well and from my position I can see most of the big woods that the pigeons were leaving in their thousands just last week, think I seen a dozen pigeons.

on the way home I drove around a few small woods and fields to see if they were there but not a bird, I have seen this pattern before and I am pretty sure they will turn-up again just as mysteriously as they disappeared, I hope.

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, old'un said:

Well the big flocks of pigeons I mentioned in the thread started by JDog ‘Where are all the posts?’ have gone!

Went out this morning at 6:30am and got in position by 6:50am, after three hours I never had a shot, I know this area well and from my position I can see most of the big woods that the pigeons were leaving in their thousands just last week, think I seen a dozen pigeons.

on the way home I drove around a few small woods and fields to see if they were there but not a bird, I have seen this pattern before and I am pretty sure they will turn-up again just as mysteriously as they disappeared, I hope.

You can understand Pigeons moving ahead of inclement weather to areas that are milder in the depth of Winter , but why would they move normally from North to South this time of the year when there is still a lot of food locally ? , the only time we seem to lose pigeons is when you get a really cold blow from the East , living on the coast there is no wind break when it hit the land , then we see pigeons moving inland where the conditions are less harsh .

I used to take fishing parties out to sea in the 70s and there were days in the Winter when we would see pigeons come down the East coast all day long in small flocks and flocks that ran into the hundreds , this was non stop and by 4pm when we used to come back in, we must had seen 1000s throughout the day , we didn't know then weather they came from Scotland or Scandinavia , when handled the only slight difference was being slightly smaller and a bit darker , we didn't really know then where they had come from and 40 odd years later we are still none the wiser  

[old'un]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

You can understand Pigeons moving ahead of inclement weather to areas that are milder in the depth of Winter , but why would they move normally from North to South this time of the year when there is still a lot of food locally ? , the only time we seem to lose pigeons is when you get a really cold blow from the East , living on the coast there is no wind break when it hit the land , then we see pigeons moving inland where the conditions are less harsh .

I used to take fishing parties out to sea in the 70s and there were days in the Winter when we would see pigeons come down the East coast all day long in small flocks and flocks that ran into the hundreds , this was non stop and by 4pm when we used to come back in, we must had seen 1000s throughout the day , we didn't know then weather they came from Scotland or Scandinavia , when handled the only slight difference was being slightly smaller and a bit darker , we didn't really know then where they had come from and 40 odd years later we are still none the wiser  

Ask me another one, I have not got a clue why they leave an area where there is plenty of food.

Back in the early 70s when rape was a relatively new crop we would watch the weather forecast and hope for some snow up north, when they did get a good covering we would see the pigeon numbers down here double within a week or so, some of the rape fields had thousands on them.

[Centrepin]

2 hours ago, old'un said:

Ask me another one, I have not got a clue why they leave an area where there is plenty of food.

Back in the early 70s when rape was a relatively new crop we would watch the weather forecast and hope for some snow up north, when they did get a good covering we would see the pigeon numbers down here double within a week or so, some of the rape fields had thousands on them.

Can I keep my fingers crossed for heavy snow in Scotland tonight then, err, better make if start now.😆

[dead eye alan]

On 09/11/2020 at 18:26, JDog said:

I toured round for two hours today and didn't see any pigeons anywhere.

Have you moved to lestershire? 

[mellors]

30 minutes ago, dead eye alan said:

Have you moved to lestershire? 

🤣🤣

[JDog]

1 hour ago, dead eye alan said:

Have you moved to lestershire? 

Yes and I went round to see my new neighbour Balotelli. He hasn’t seen any either.